This paper presents a dynamic simulation model for a hybrid electric scooter (HES) designed by NPUST in Taiwan. The HES is built in a parallel hybrid configuration with a 24 V 370 W auxiliary power electric motor, a 24 V 600 W generator, a 24 V 15 AH battery, and an electronically controlled fuel injection internal combustion engine (ICE). Because the system is complex and nonlinear in nature, the simulation model utilizes mathematical models in tandem with accumulated experimental data. The methods used to construct the model and to prepare experimental data are fully described. Efforts are made to accurately predict key system parameters including engine speed, velocity, CVT gear ratio, battery state of charge (SOC), and fuel consumption rates during an ECE-40 driving cycle test. The efficacy of the model was verified experimentally with a scooter chassis dynamometer; parameters predicted by the simulation model are seen to be in excellent agreement with those of experiments.

The variable combined brake system (VCBS) is a mechanism for motorcycles to simultaneously activate the front and rear brake systems by using one brake lever or pedal. The purpose is to reduce the risk of rollover accidents due to misuse of the front brake when panic braking. Due to its ability in a wide variation range of braking force distribution (BFD) ratios between the front and rear wheels, the VCBS can simultaneously achieve high braking effort and driving comfort performances, provided that the BFD ratio is designed appropriately. This paper aimed to develop the design method for the VCBS. A mathematical model of the VCBS mechanism is derived, and a parameter matching design method that applies adaptive control theory is proposed. A prototype of VCBS is designed and built based on the proposed method. The straight-line braking test results show that the motorcycle equipped with the VCBS prototype effectively obtained a high braking performance in deceleration. The obtained maximum deceleration is an average of 6.37 m/s² (0.65 g) under an average handbrake lever force of 154.29 N. For front brake failure, maximum deceleration is obtained at an average of 3.38 m/s² (0.34 g), which is higher than the homologation requirement of 2.9 m/s².

A dynamic simulation model for a scooter with a mechanical-type continuously variable transmission (CVT) is developed in this paper. Attention is paid to the prediction of key parameters of the scooter such as the engine speed, CVT gear ratio, and fuel consumption of the ECE-40 drive cycle, in order to evaluate the performance of a tuned scooter. The scooter studied in this paper consists of an electronically controlled fuel injection internal combustion engine (ICE), clutch, final drive, and a mechanical-type CVT. Due to the system being complicated and nonlinear in nature, the simulation model is simultaneously constructed using mathematical models and experimental data. The construction method of the model and preparation of the experimental data is described. A PID based driving model to control the scooter was also designed. The effectiveness of the model was verified experimentally using a scooter hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system. It is shown that parameters predicted by the simulation model agree well with results from the experiment.

The combined brake system (CBS) is a mechanism that links the front and rear brakes for scooters. For two-wheeled scooters, a CBS with appropriate braking force distribution can reduce the risk of crashing accidents due to insufficient driving proficiency. The design of the braking force distribution for a CBS is challenging to the designer because it has to fulfill many requirements such as braking performance, ride comfort, reliability, and low costs. This paper proposes a systematic method to optimize the parameters of CBS. The evaluation indexes for the design are first discussed. The steps to determine the critical parameter to meet the indexes and a method to predict braking performance are developed. Finally, driving tests are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experimental results showed that the deceleration of the tested scooter equipped with the designed CBS achieves an average mean fully developed deceleration (MFDD) of 5.246 m/s², higher than the homologation requirement. Furthermore, the proposed method’s prediction of braking performance is in good agreement with the test results, with errors <1%.

A novel PID-type fuzzy logic controller (FLC) with an online fuzzy tuner was created to maintain stable in situ control of the cutting front temperature, aiming to enhance the laser process for thin non-oriented electrical steel sheets. In the developed controller, the output scaling factors and the universe of discourse were initially optimized using a hybrid of the particle swarm optimization and grey wolf optimization methods. The optimal parameters obtained were utilized in experiments involving the laser cutting of thin non-oriented electrical steel sheets, compared to an open-loop control system maintaining a constant cutting speed. The PID-type FLC with an online fuzzy tuner demonstrated a superior cutting quality, generating a smaller roundness and a reduced heat-affected zone (HAZ) through the in situ tuning of control parameters. Particularly, the HAZ width was significantly smaller than that reported in a previous study which used fuzzy gain scheduling for temperature control. Moreover, the cutting time was diminished by optimally adjusting the cutting speed using PID-type FLC with an online fuzzy tuner. Therefore, the accumulated heat in the steel sheet, particularly under high laser pulse frequencies, was effectively reduced, making it suitable for industrial applications.